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virginia_vex's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Death of parent
steveatwaywords's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
There is a lot to like about Powers's sentimental, often preachy, heavily-crafted story. Certainly some of my politics (environmentalism, freedom of speech, etc.) align well, so the book is written to me; and that's half its problem.
Don't seek nuance (or much complexity) as Powers aspires to bring nothing less than the infinite outer-verse and inner-verse into alignment and then sighs, "But humans. . . . " In many ways Daniel Keyes did as well or better with his own mouse. But once our author has allied himself with Algernon, the whole story is un-enthusiastically foretold. The ending death of Robyn is not only a needless martyrdom, but by the time we reach it, I felt more like we killed him off only because the story was over rather than have his father continue to face raising him for more than a few narrative months.
It is Powers's deliberate and heavy-handed work to offer a sentimental story which makes this entire venture more ideology than literature, more emotional catharsis ("Somebody gets me!") than genuine reflection. Just because it's my propaganda doesn't make it less so.
But enough of that. Along the way, Powers does show why he remains a popular writer and that has more to do with real moments of waxing lyricism (a Neruda fan, for sure). He's eminently quotable: undoubtably portions of this work are already appearing on t-shirts, bumper stickers, and framed IG reels. His highly problematic glossing of medicine, schooling, and cognitive studies, for instance, from the vantage of such pithy verse, can safely be ignored. His takes on political dread or the micro-/macro-scales of nature and the universe, instead of providing challenges to us, are given in the briefest of chapters, only enough time for nods of the head.
My problem with the book isn't about his simplicity, with his designing the story and structure to be easy-reader friendly, it isn't even with the potent questions which appear here and there: it's that these insights are offered as conclusions, not as opportunities for exploration. So many writers have already done so much more . . .
Want a thorough read on animal rights that will grind on readers with its complex ethics? Try Elizabeth Costello by Coetzee. Want to talk about the Great Filter of evolution amongst the stars? Try a dozen science fiction writers from Clarke (philosophy of wonder) to Niven (hard science) to Pellegrino (realist military).
I enjoyed the read, found myself nodding too often appropriately, especially loved the frequent visits to other planets, and will remain committed to my politics and ethics both where they align with Powers and where they do not.
Don't seek nuance (or much complexity) as Powers aspires to bring nothing less than the infinite outer-verse and inner-verse into alignment and then sighs, "But humans. . . . " In many ways Daniel Keyes did as well or better with his own mouse. But once our author has allied himself with Algernon, the whole story is un-enthusiastically foretold.
It is Powers's deliberate and heavy-handed work to offer a sentimental story which makes this entire venture more ideology than literature, more emotional catharsis ("Somebody gets me!") than genuine reflection. Just because it's my propaganda doesn't make it less so.
But enough of that. Along the way, Powers does show why he remains a popular writer and that has more to do with real moments of waxing lyricism (a Neruda fan, for sure). He's eminently quotable: undoubtably portions of this work are already appearing on t-shirts, bumper stickers, and framed IG reels. His highly problematic glossing of medicine, schooling, and cognitive studies, for instance, from the vantage of such pithy verse, can safely be ignored. His takes on political dread or the micro-/macro-scales of nature and the universe, instead of providing challenges to us, are given in the briefest of chapters, only enough time for nods of the head.
My problem with the book isn't about his simplicity, with his designing the story and structure to be easy-reader friendly, it isn't even with the potent questions which appear here and there: it's that these insights are offered as conclusions, not as opportunities for exploration. So many writers have already done so much more . . .
Want a thorough read on animal rights that will grind on readers with its complex ethics? Try Elizabeth Costello by Coetzee. Want to talk about the Great Filter of evolution amongst the stars? Try a dozen science fiction writers from Clarke (philosophy of wonder) to Niven (hard science) to Pellegrino (realist military).
I enjoyed the read, found myself nodding too often appropriately, especially loved the frequent visits to other planets, and will remain committed to my politics and ethics both where they align with Powers and where they do not.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal death, and Grief
brogan7's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
2.5
This is one of those books people must either love or hate. I thought it was going somewhere really interesting for the first third, and then so much oh no.
He made several choices in plot development that felt like an error to me.
The Dad wouldn't have okayed the video, just so he could have an editorial say on it. It's absolutely inconsistent with his character, which makes all the things that happened afterwards less believable. As just one example.
I felt increasingly that Richard Powers was just going off on his ideas, instead of listening for the story.
Early on in the story, I could feel Aly's brain waves rubbing off on me!...and then in his narrative, it all started to go downhill, which, honestly, isn't that the perennial story of our screwed up Judeo-Christian culture, everything goes to shit?
I wanted a little more imagination, a little more nudge in the direction of unforeseen hope, a gap between certainties, which he hinted at at the beginning of the book.
I wanted him to explore the questions of: if we all become happier, does that really help? A blissed-out Robin is attractive on screen, but how does that rob him of his humanity, of which his despair is a part? And also how does the charisma of positivity attract people, but dull the message? Instead, he goes off in a totally other direction, and I ended up not only unwilling to believe the ending but heartbroken in a whole different way. He had a story and he lost an opportunity...
Also I don't get Robin's query about the limits to searching for an alien life form. Maybe the constraint is not on that end....p. 229-230, "Maybe the Great Filter isn't behind us. Maybe it's ahead of us.". ...what is he talking about? I think he was getting at something interesting but I couldn't make sense of it, and that really bothered me.
He made several choices in plot development that felt like an error to me.
I felt increasingly that Richard Powers was just going off on his ideas, instead of listening for the story.
Early on in the story, I could feel Aly's brain waves rubbing off on me!...and then in his narrative, it all started to go downhill, which, honestly, isn't that the perennial story of our screwed up Judeo-Christian culture, everything goes to shit?
I wanted a little more imagination, a little more nudge in the direction of unforeseen hope, a gap between certainties, which he hinted at at the beginning of the book.
I wanted him to explore the questions of: if we all become happier, does that really help? A blissed-out Robin is attractive on screen, but how does that rob him of his humanity, of which his despair is a part? And also how does the charisma of positivity attract people, but dull the message? Instead, he goes off in a totally other direction, and I ended up not only unwilling to believe the ending but heartbroken in a whole different way. He had a story and he lost an opportunity...
Also I don't get Robin's query about the limits to searching for an alien life form. Maybe the constraint is not on that end....p. 229-230, "Maybe the Great Filter isn't behind us. Maybe it's ahead of us.". ...what is he talking about? I think he was getting at something interesting but I couldn't make sense of it, and that really bothered me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief and Death of parent
TW: ecocide, climate griefcarbine's review against another edition
I absolutely loved The Overstory and was excited to move on to Bewilderment. It became clear within the first third of the book that I would not enjoy the depth of character development that I enjoyed in the previous work.
I abandoned this one at the point when the father physically abuses his autistic (but not officially autistic!) son. The ableist stereotypes were too much for me, as was the authors' decision to pair a disabled child with a neglectful and abusive father, then pass that off as "dad is just grieving". I did not find any of the characters likeable or relatable, although the son could have been if he had been treated as a human and not defined solely by his neurodivergence.
I acknowledge that my viewpoint may be biased as I work in mental health with children and families who fit this description, thus it may have hit too close to home. Still, I really would prefer to read stories about neurodivergent folks written by members of that community. Otherwise, it too often comes across as exploitative.
I abandoned this one at the point when
I acknowledge that my viewpoint may be biased as I work in mental health with children and families who fit this description, thus it may have hit too close to home. Still, I really would prefer to read stories about neurodivergent folks written by members of that community. Otherwise, it too often comes across as exploitative.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Car accident, Grief, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Ableism, and Bullying
perseusj4ckson's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
i’m devastated. powers has done it again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Child death, and Mental illness
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Bullying, Car accident, and Death of parent
izzybell's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Death, Child death, and Death of parent
m4rtt4's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Like Overstory, this book also gave me so much to think about — what is important in life, what even is life? It was also highly emotional and gave an interesting insight on raising a child on the spectrum. This book had so much potential, but it aimed too high. There were so much interesting concepts like decoded neurofeedback and the whole near-future dystopian world with all its catastrophes; it's almost criminal of Powers to create such future scenarios and only mention them in a single sentence, a fleeting moment. I was very intrigued at first, but I lost my interest more and more towards the ending because I knew that I'd never get the explanations I wanted. In that way the story kind of stayed true to itself, though — just like me, we as a society will never know enough about this world and all our answers might be wrong. The ending was lame, it was too dramatic for no reason and the results weren't even properly dealt with. the death of Robin was so unnecessary and didn't even give the story any emotional value as it was just quietly swept under the carpet — also you just can't end the book by him dying without even telling us the consequences?? just let him live, his death didn't even have the symbolic impact of 'we humans are doomed' as it probably was intended to.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, and Death
Moderate: Animal death, Ableism, Violence, Child death, Animal cruelty, and Car accident
alaina's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Utterly devastating and beautiful meditation on being a person who loves in a changing and challenging climate.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, and Child death
Moderate: Animal death, Deportation, Xenophobia, and Animal cruelty
Climate grief and environmental destruction are central to the story. Political division and the rise of fascism also present throughout.emcsquared's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Mental illness, Death of parent, and Self harm
hippejulia's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Aika masentava kuvaus jostain lähitulevaisuudesta joka ei edes ole ilmastokriisikuvauksillaan niin kauana todellisuudesta. Paikoitellen minusta vähän ableistinen.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Car accident, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Grief
Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Ableism, and Mental illness
Minor: Medical content and Infidelity